Daniel Hendler in Daniel Burman's A Lost Embrace
Of the 49 films submitted for the 2005 Best Foreign Language Film Academy Award, 8 are from the Americas, 2 from Africa, 12 from Asia, and 27 from Europe.
This is the first time that Malaysia has submitted a film for the Oscars, The Princess of Mount Ledang / A Legendary Love. The story of the forbidden romance between a 15th-century Javanese Hindu princess and a Malay Muslim warrior, The Princess of Mount Ledang is the most expensive Malaysian film ever made.
Iran's Turtles Can Fly won the Best Picture Golden Shell at the San Sebastián Film Festival. Gianni Amelio's The House Keys was a Venice Film Festival favorite; its failure to win any important awards led to an uproar in the Italian press. Spanish entry The Sea Inside, starring Javier Bardem, won the Grand Jury prize at Venice.
Since arcane Academy rules only allow one film per country, Pedro Almodóvar's much praised Spanish comedy-drama Bad Education is not among the submitted films. Walter Salles' Diarios de motocicleta / The Motorcycle Diaries is another Oscar orphan, as it doesn't really belong to any one country. The movie was shot in Spanish, its director is a Portuguese-speaking Brazilian, its story is set in various South American countries, and most of its financing came from the (mostly English-speaking) United States.
The 2005 Academy Award nominations will be announced at the Academy's Samuel Goldwyn Theater on Tuesday, January 25, 2005.
The submissions for 2005 Best Foreign Language Film Oscar are (see also follow-up posts):
Afghanistan, Earth and Ashes, Atiq Rahimi, director;
Argentina, A Lost Embrace, Daniel Burman, director;
Austria, Antares, Gotz Spielmann, director;
Belgium, The Alzheimer Case, Erik Van Looy, director;
Bosnia and Herzegovina, Days and Hours, Pjer žalica, director;
Brazil, Olga, Jayme Monjardim, director;
Bulgaria, Mila from Mars, Zornitsa Sophia, director;
Canada, Far Side of the Moon, Robert Lepage, director;
Chile, Machuca, Andrés Wood, director;
China, House of Flying Daggers, Zhang Yimou, director;
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